SELAH AND THE SPADES | FAMILY MOVIE REVIEW INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS

"SELAH AND THE SPADES"
(2020) (Lovie Simone, Celeste O'Connor) (R)

QUICK TAKE:: Drama: The senior leader of a drug-dealing faction at a boarding school takes on a new student as her protégé.

PLOT:

At the prestigious Haldwell Boarding School, five factions serve the student body's various vices. Each has a leader and those students serve as a governing council of sorts, with it being unclear how aware Headmaster Banton (JESSE WILLIAMS) is of what's occurring within and outside the school's classrooms and dormitories. While each of those faction leaders -- including Roberta "Bobby" Pellegrino (ANA MULROY TEN), Thomas "Two Tom" Thomas II (EVAN ROE) and Tarit Toll Perilstein (HENRY HUNTER HALL) -- are supposed to be equals, senior Selah Summers (LOVIE SIMONE) views herself as the ruling queen.

Along with her right-hand teen, Maxxie Ayoade (JHARREL JEROME), Selah runs the Spades, the school faction that peddles any number of illicit substances to other students. But having lost her previous protégé a year or so back, Selah has no one to replace her when she graduates. Her luck changes when day student and amateur photographer Paloma Davis (CELESTE O'CONNOR) catches her eye and it's not long before Selah takes her under her wing. But as Paloma gains confidence and after Tarit informs Selah that there's a rat in her faction and that Maxxie -- who's taken an interest in a girl at their school -- is slipping, the Spades ruler must decide what must be done to assert her rule.

WILL KIDS WANT TO SEE IT?: Teens might be interested as that's the age of the main characters.

WHY THE MPAA RATED IT: R: For teen drug content, and language.

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